Countywide Golf Voyage Helps Iron Out Handicap

March 3, 1987|By ROBES PATTON, Staff Writer

When I decided to try to get my golf handicap, the immediate question was ``What is the maximum?``

I mean, would I have to go out and beg 51 strokes from a scratch player? Could I count on par-3s becoming par-7s? Or, embarassing as it seemed, would I be forced to tell people ``Well, I max out at 48 . . . but if you`re feeling generous. . . .``

In Part I of the USGA Handicap System and Golf Committee Manual, under Purposes, Requirements and Definitions of the USGA Handicap System the ``essence`` of the handicap system is explained:

``Handicapping, based on Course Rating, is the great equalizer among golfers of differing abilities.``

When it comes to my game, however, it is more than just ``differing ability.``

Signing up to get my handicap, which is most accurate after 20 rounds but can be official after five rounds, was easy. I paid $5 at Boca Raton Municipal Golf Course and, as my name was being added to the list, I discreetly checked to see if there were many triple figures turned in (there weren`t), and began striving for my handicap; damn the torpedoes, full shanks ahead.

My first round, a 109 at Broken Sound`s Club Course, broke my personal record and gave me hope that I could, with luck, get a handicap under the maximum 36. But it would take a better round than 109, which had included 10 three-putts.

My best golf, what little there has been, has been played in a relaxed, non- competitive atmosphere. If I`m with good players, I press and I might as well get out the snorkeling gear and the rake with each club.

If you`re just starting out on your handicap, only one of the first six rounds count, up to the best 10 of 20. So my 117 at Lacuna west of Lake Worth, played with a foursome that included a guy who twice seriously considered driving over water that looked like a mirage and was at par well into the round, and a duplicate 117 at Pine Tree Golf Club, a stunning course to look at and sandy one to play, likely won`t count toward my eventual 10 best scores.

My best rounds, 110 and 108 at Boca Muni, 109 at Broken Sound and 106 at Aberdeen, were played alongside fellow Sun-Sentinel sports writer Steve Tiberi, who spends more time on a course yelling at himself than Bob Knight yells at referees. (He did have some good rounds; his best was a 96 at Plantation without me for bad luck).

Neither of us were too thrilled with our second round at Boca Muni. It started raining on No. 2 with putts waiting and again on No. 4. After an hour of rain delays and the course vacant, I retrieved a beach towel from the car and completed the round in a makeshift kilt to keep my legs from freezing. It proved worth the effort, however, as the sun broke through on the last two holes and we finished off what may be the loneliest round in the history of the golf course. After No. 5, we were the only players left and played 13 holes without interruption.

The next time at Boca Muni, my 108 included my first, and perhaps only, birdie on a regulation course. On the 461-yard, par-5 No. 5, I hit a solid drive and 3-wood that both remained in play and then chipped to 10 feet. The putt made it four, and emphasized the ineptitude of the 108. I balanced the birdie with four triple bogeys and a quintuple (three shots in one bunker) bogey the rest of the way.

My tours of Boca Muni were followed by the 117 fiascos at Lacuna and Pine Tree. Both courses left me staggering and calling a friend in Alabama to send me more used golf balls. Lacuna itself probably swallowed 10 of my finest shots. Pine Tree wasn`t quite as damp, but the sand . . . miserable.

After five rounds, I still was facing the prospect of a handicap over the maximum.

Aberdeen, the new course west of Boynton Beach, was not, I thought, the place to luck out and come in with a sub-108 round. It was labeled ``the golf course from hell`` by a member of our threesome who hit at least a dozen shots into the water.

I was six over par and found myself facing the toughest hole on the course, 549 yards with at least two and possibly three shots over water.

No. 4 at Aberdeen has an island, which I reached with my drive, that tempts the daring player and turned into my best hole in six rounds. I lucked out with a 3-wood to return to the mainland and a 5-iron left me with less than 100 yards to the green. My 8-iron, possibly my worst club, was good to me and left the ball within 10 feet for a par putt.

I closed out the front with a pair of double and triple bogeys and a par. Making the turn at 52, a duplicate 52 would have put me at 104, four-under my best ever 108.

Unfortunately, there were nine holes to play. Not a sure thing, but I was still OK, bogeying Nos. 13 through 15. On the 16th, however, with a round in double figures in my grasp, I choked like I had four Titleists rammed in my throat.

The drive was behind a palm, the next shot onto the next fairway, then a couple of shanks and, staring at the elevated green, I chipped over the green. Not once, but twice. The bloated 11 set me up for the traditional collapse but I was stunned when I hit my tee shot on the par-3 17th to within 10 feet of the pin.

Of course, I missed the putt and settled for par, but you can`t have everything.

I double-bogeyed No. 18 and came in at 54 on the back for a 106, my best ever and enough to provide a handicap of 34.

Not bad, considering it would have been about 50 a year ago.

And even the 11 on No. 16 at Aberdeen gave me hope.

If it had been par, I would have been at 100, and then if I`d made the putt on 17, it would have been 99 and if I`d cleared the water on No. 6. . .